Abstract
5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is an important platform molecule in the synthesis of various chemicals and materials. Herein, we reported a simple and effective dehydration of glucose-based carbohydrates to HMF in a biphasic system containing cyclopentyl methyl ether as the organic phase and AlCl3 with minute amounts of HCl as co-catalysts. The results showed that the mixed catalysts had a positive synergistic catalytic effect on glucose conversion to HMF compared with single AlCl3 or HCl catalyst. For glucose, the highest HMF yield of 54.5% was achieved at 175 °C for 20 min. More importantly, the optimal catalytic system was so efficient that it achieved one of the highest reported yields of HMF (30.5%) directly from corncob acid hydrolysis residues. Thus, the catalytic system can become a promising route for effective utilization of biomass in future biorefineries.
Highlights
Increasing concerns for fossil fuels depletion and environmental pollution have prompted search for sustainable alternative sources for energy and chemicals
Moderate Brønsted acids such as mineral acids used in the present of AlCl3 for glucose conversions are meaningful for reducing the large amounts of AlCl3 (40 mol% equality to carbohydrate units), so the AlCl3-catalytic conversion of carbohydrate is still needed to investigate in detail
Fructose was not detected in HCl-catalytic reaction alone, indicating that no glucose isomerization to fructose occurred in Brønsted acid catalytic system
Summary
Increasing concerns for fossil fuels depletion and environmental pollution have prompted search for sustainable alternative sources for energy and chemicals. The object of this work is to achieve the high efficiency production of HMF directly through glucose rather than fructose with co-catalysts of AlCl3 and HCl in the CPME/H2O biphasic system. The study investigated the effect of reaction conditions, such as temperature, time, CPME loading, and the influence of NaCl addition on HMF yield.
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